22 February 2012 3:17 AM

Rick Santorum has sought to deflect controversy over a 2008 speech in which he said that "Satan has set his sights on the United States" by drawing a parallel with Ronald Reagan branding the Soviet Union an "evil empire".

Speaking at a rally in Phoenix, Arizona, the former US Senator for Pennsylvania told an anecdote about Lech Walesa and stating that "yes there are forces of evil in the world". The former Solidarity leader in Poland, he said, had recalled the days when "America would stand up and call evil by its name".

Santorum said: "Ronald Reagan did that. Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire and the media went would how dare you how dare you ascribe terms like good and evil to regimes.

"Because Ronald Reagan told the truth. He didn't sugarcoat it. He went out and called it the way it was. He went out and promoted the values of our country."

Rick Santorum speaks at the Phoenix rally. Photo: Toby Harnden.

His response is unlikely to convince critics of his outspoken religiosity, however, because Reagan was talking about foreign policy and a Cold War foe while Santorum appeared to be talking about a spiritual threat. Self-comparisons with Reagan, a Republican demi-god, are, moreover, often politically risky, as Newt Gingrich has found out.

In 1983, Reagan rejected the advice of aides who urged him not to call the Soviet Union an "evil empire", delivering a speech to the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Florida that is now seen as a defining moment in the demise of the USSR and the end of the Cold War.

Before Santorum spoke in Phoenix, Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk show host, said that publication of excerpts from the speech were "part of the predictable attempt to impugn Santorum as an absolute religious nut and wacko". But he added that Santorum "will have to deal with it, he'll have to answer it".

In the speech to students at Ave Maria University in south-west Florida in August 2008, Mr Santorum, a devout Roman Catholic and father of seven, said that "Satan has his sights on the United States of America".

Audio of the speech, which was posted on the Drudge Report earlier in the day, revealed that he said: "Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity, and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition."

He warned that US politics and government were falling prey to the devil. "This is a spiritual war. And the Father of Lies has his sights on what you would think the Father of Lies would have his sights on: a good, decent, powerful, influential country - the United States of America. If you were Satan, who would you attack in this day and age?"

Satan "attacks all of us and he attacks all of our institutions", he insisted in the speech, and was even taking control of some Christian denominations. "We look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it."

Talking to a scrum of reporters after his Phoenix event this evening, Santorum was visibly irritated by questions about the Satan speech.

"You know, I'm a person of faith," he said. "I believe in good and evil. I think if somehow or other you're a person of faith you believe in good and evil is a disqualifier for president were going to have a very small pool of candidate who can run for president.

"Ronald Reagan talked very much in terms of good and evil. the fact of the matter is good and veil exists. Ronald Reagan recognised it. I think the vast vast majority of Americans recognise it."

When asked if he still thought Satan had designs on the US, he expressed his frustration that he was being diverted from highlighting the economy. "Guys, these are questions that are not relevant to what's being discussed in America today," he said. "What we're talking about in America today is trying to get America going.

"That's what my speeches are about. That's what we're going to talk about in this campaign. If they want to dig up old speeches talking to a religious group they can go right ahead and do so.

"But I'm going to stay on message and I'm going to talk about things that Americans want to talk about which is creating jobs, getting our country safer and secure and, yeah, taking on the forces around this world who want to do harm to America. You bet I'll take them on."

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Santorum makes many conservatives quesey with his outspoken zeal to use the machinery of the national government to "reform" and shape families to carry out the mission of a civil society as he sees fit. He scoffs at individualism and proposes to use the family unit as an instrument to his end rather than limiting the federal government so individuals can make their own choices regarding how to organize society. He would also use the tax code to pick winners and losers.

Oh good grief people, so one man can wear his Religion on his sleeve, the other one(Romney) is persecuted relentlessly for it?...yea! yea! I hear your response, he's not "Christian", thank goodness we have you to judge who is Christian, so "Christianlike" of ya'll to be so judgemental and hypocritical. All this Christian goodwill is going to put Mr. Evil (Obama) right back in the White House to finish the job of destroying the Constitution and the Country. Santorum is not ready lead, plain and simple, he will be destroyed by Obama. How much do you hate Mormons that you prefer to allow Obama destroy us? I hear the distant cackle of Mr. O as he watches the Redubs destroy each other!

I was at the rally and heard his speech. He is a great speaker and basically said the same thing Reagan said regarding evil in this world. He wants to name it, claim it and destroy it. Just like Reagan did. What is wrong with that? Obama wants to side with evil, play with evil and let evil prevail, all while the media acts like evil does not exist.

Santorum is a far-right, religious NUT, intent on forcing his bizarre morals on everyone. Romney might be a super-Conservative Morman, but at least he isn't browbeating everyone ELSE to become religious. Santorum obviously intends to have his own, little theocracy in the White House. Anyone that willingly sleeps with a CORPSE for a night, and then lets his KIDS "hold" and "carry around" (his words, ot mine) the corpse is too far out for me! Rick will get PUMMELED by Obama if he is the nominee......

Santorum forgot to mention that Satan's greatest vehicle of destruction of the USA is Zionism and the corruption of the Christian religion of peace by Zionist warmongers that serve Satan's plan for One World Government..

Rick speaks the truth. He is conservative, but nobody is going to be exactly what everyone wants. I am glad that he speaks what he believes instead of trying to be all things to everyone. Reagan was like that. As for being like Reagan, it doesn't matter. If you believe in God, then you know that there is a battle on Earth. Even the non believers are aware of that and it doesn't have to affect the vote. Rick can turn this country around. He HAS to, and as a believer, I know that God will help the next president, as Obama is not a good steward of the greatest nation on Earth.

Reagan - I don't think so. On tax policy Reagan believed in lowering the rates and broadening the base. santorum wants to triple down on the "child care credit entitlement". This is the new welfare that already allows 50% to pay ZERO in income taxes. This is pure social engineering. NOT Reagan!

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TOBY HARNDEN

Toby Harnden is a US Executive Editor of Mail Online and the Daily Mail’s US Editor. A British citizen by birth and American citizen by choice, he is based in Washington DC and has reported on the US politics for more than a dozen years. He became a journalist after serving as a Royal Navy officer and has covered the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as being imprisoned in Zimbabwe. More details are on his website here. You can email him at toby.harnden@dailymail.co.uk, follow him on Twitter @tobyharnden and on Facebook. He is the author of the bestseller Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan.